It’s been almost 80 years since the entire world has been at war and this time (thankfully), instead of countries fighting against each other, they all stand together fighting a common enemy: COVID-19.  And similar to WWII, companies are stepping up to give those “on the frontlines” the tools they need. Back in the 1940s it was companies like washing machine maker Maytag (who would make aircraft parts) and toy train builder Lionel (producing parts for naval combat vessels), while now it’s companies like Bauer Hockey making full facial shields for doctors and nurses, Brian’s and Vaughn making medical gowns and New Balance (Warrior’s parent company) making general-use face masks. Even street hockey equipment maker Mylec has gotten involved by producing flooring for medical tents.  Below we want to celebrate the efforts of each company and hope you join us in 

The first company to step forward in the COVID-19 fight was Bauer with their prototype for a full face shield often worn by doctors and nurses when interacting with highly contagious patients and/or situations where the there is high biohazard risk.  The initial designs were created in Bauer’s Montreal R&D offices and shown to an employee’s father who is a physician for feedback and modification. Since then Bauer has taken the production team normally focused on producing custom skates and retrained them to produce the shields. 

Bauer has priced the shields at cost, has already received over 1 million orders and has committed to making 2.5 million by the end of May. Importantly, Bauer has posted both the design and material requirements online, giving away the intellectual property to any company who has the tooling to produce the shields. Automated skate sharpening producer Sparx Hockey has taken up Bauer on their offer and is already producing their own face shields.

Not long after Bauer announced their facemask initiative, Brian’s and Vaughn (with partner GRAF Hockey) announced they would be producing medical gowns.  Brian’s has already secured an order to produce 18,000 such gowns for local EMS and many more are expected.  Vaughn is using both their London Ontario and Oxford Michigan plants to produce gowns.  The Michigan plant is already working on an initial batch of 22,500 gowns with another 10,000 pending.  

 The skate lace by Graf on the gowns is such a great gear nerd touch!!

Warrior’s parent company has taken a multi-pronged approach.  They first announced they would be producing general-use face masks at their Massachusetts and Maine production facilities, with the goal of producing 100,000 per week by mid-April. They are also in the process of developing gowns and foot coverings for medical professionals and have committed $2 million in grants to non-profits that can help with the pandemic.

As one of the biggest names in hockey, CCM has known from day 1 that they wanted to help in the fight against COVID.  After considering several options, CCM announced today that, in partnership with their NHL and Women Pro players, they are donating 500,000 surgical masks which will be sourced via their network of production partners. They expect shipments to go out as early as April 27th.

Mylec has also lent a hand in the fight against COVID-19 by producing flooring for medical tents. The flooring, normally used for dek hockey rinks, is called DEKMAT.  DEKMAT can be fastened together without tools, handle heavy foot traffic and even be steam/powercleaned without loosing integrity.  

Smaller goalie gear makers have also found ways to help, with Kenesky making face shields and Simons producing medical scrub hats.

Never before have companies so voluntarily railed to help fight a global pandemic.  Many of the companies expressed how proud they were of their employees who, while being technically classified as “non-essential” and not required to work, have volunteered to use the skills they have honed making equipment for a game, to fight a very deadly disease. The obvious hope is that the need for these companies’ healthcare products is short term, but our gratitude for what they are doing will live on forever.